The Blood Donor Story

 So in the UK, they were holding a blood donation episode.  Guy (68) shows up....has donated a number of times in his life.  Blood donation folks have paperwork to wrap up.  So they come to this question....new item since the last time he donated: "Are you pregnant, or have you been in the last six months?".  It was a yes or no question.

Guy looked at the person doing this, and just verbally responded that he was a guy.....well...it didn't matter, they still wanted the yes or no checked.  

He responded it's not a yes or no....he can't be pregnant.

In the end, they turned down the guy.  He didn't donate blood.

I pondered over the story. 

They just wanted a line on a form....fixed to yes/no.  To him, it was obvious....if a guy, you can't be pregnant.  

After a while, I thought...well, why not just say 'yes'.....I've been pregnant as a guy.  The paperwork fellow would have then read the notation, and logically....he would have asked another question.

I would have stopped him and simply said that I conceived a child without any sperm involved, and delivered the child on the 25th of December.  

You know where this is going. 

Would they have still accepted the blood?  Far as I know....nutcases are not prevented from donating (at least not yet).  

So, when you see this question in the future....either at the dentist office or with Nurse Wanda at your clinic.....just be honest....you did conceive without any male help, and you delivered last December.  See how far the game goes.

The Thing About Team-Building Exercises

 I was fortunate to progress through the Air Force in the 80s/90s, and marginally saw the team-building business introduced (at the very end).  

My original view, as these were introduced....we had teams built and functional already, and it seemed like the people running this agenda....wanted people to talk to each other on a first name basis....drift over to group-think....and have new plans/paths introduced on a regular basis (this meant if X didn't work, you went to Y, and if Y didn't work, you went to Z).

In the eleven years as a contractor....we had a couple of attempts to run team-building, and most failed miserably.  

I brought this topic up one day with a guy who'd spent around four years at some major industry (mid-2000s).  It'd reached a point where the team-building stuff was so crapped out....that his HR gave up local efforts, and started to bring national team-builders (they'd fly the guy out for a whole week).  The problem here....the national guy had no clear understanding of the organization, its service, or it's customers.  

Are we that bad off....to require team-building?  I think the more likely path here is that we are in the midst of a boss-obstruction.  We have people given management roles....who are simply lacking in skills to perform at this level.  You can blame the college system, or the HR involvement in recruitment for this 'weakness'.

You would think for a master's degree or PhD, in some type of management or leadership area....you'd have gifted instructors for the 'art'.  I simply don't believe they exist to the degree that was around in the 1970s/1980s.  

Shouldn't boards be 'gifted' enough to shape a CEO to the degree required?  Well....we got to the point of bringing in idiots to boards (like that Hunter 'kid') and boards are mostly today useless.

So to make up for the problem....we shape team-building to show that if they think in x-way.....the product or service will be successful.  

I'm not calling team-building as a BS tool....but you are supposed to think/react in a certain way at the end.

On how to handle team-building...if you get forced into it?  Simply play along.....smile, and accept the fact that they can't fix the boss problem.  

(On my most favorite team-building event participation?  My boss took the entire shop to a horse-track and instructed us on betting.  It actually was a great afternoon, but had nothing to do with work.)